Better scanning

[Attila]

http://www.betterscanning.com/scanning/usinginsert35.html

Any experience ?

[cooltouch]

The folks over at the Hybrid Photo Forums have plenty of experience with them:

http://www.hybridphoto.com/forums/

Go to the Scanners page, and post a question, or search their archives for questions about betterscanning.com.

It is my opinion, based on the photos and information provided at the BS website that their products will help sharpen your scans, but not by a huge amount. It is instead a small, but significant, improvement.

I haven't decided yet to purchase any of their products, although I probably will -- especialy their medium format template for the Epson 4990, as well as some of their anti-Newtonian glass.

That's an Epson 4990 film holder they're showing on their ANR page by the way.

[Nesster]

"BS" is not a happy abbreviation

[A G Photography]

I have both 120 and 35mm inserts and while they make no wonder still they're very useful expecially when you have to mess with those dreaded curled film strips.

I think it was money well spent.

[martinsmith99]

I can see how these would help with Tri-X as it is curly beyond belief. I may have to invest.

[Attila]

Thank you Alessandro I think I have to invest too.

[cooltouch]

I'm wondering how well the ANR glass works with 35mm strips (besides the obvious, that is -- getting rid of Newton rings). BS does not offer any adjustable height holders for 35mm (at least not for the Epson scanners I've looked at there), just the ANR glass. So this means that if the optimal focus point is different from the standard holder's offset, the ANR glass will probably not offer much in the way of improved sharpness.

So, if you've bought the 35mm size ANR pieces, have you done any comparison scans? If so, would you care to post pics showing the difference between scans with and without the ANR glass?

[martinsmith99]

I would be interested too.

The odd thing I find with V500 & Tri-X is that although the film is very bowed, there is no point wher I can see that focus is either better, or worse.

[Neare]

It does make a difference as it keeps the film flat. Whether or not most people can make out the difference I doubt it. However, if you use it yourself, your eye becomes trained. And once you start down the path of ANR, you can never go back.

[cooltouch]

Well, I can understand the advantage to using ANR glass when it comes to getting rid of Newton Rings, which I've had problems with.

It seems to me though that if one wants to optimize the sharpness of ones 35mm scans, one needs to buy the adjustable medium format template, adjust it to its best height by scanning medium format film, then use shims under the 35mm film strip template to place the 35mm film at the same height. But if you're scanning 35mm slides, you're SOL, since the slides rest on the glass.

[martinsmith99]

So would I see an improvement in in sharpness when scanning 35mm negs by using the glass?

I've heard that the Epson has quite a depth of field so getting the exact height is not essential.

[cooltouch]

[lulalake]

Yes.

If you noticed, Doug Fisher runs that company. He is also the owner of the Yahoo Epson scanner forum. I used to be a moderator there (I had to quit because of having too many other things I was involved in)

I was lucky enough to beta test the ANR glass and the adjustable 120 film holder on Epson scanners. I think that they are excellent. The quality in the holders comes from two areas.

1. The ability to adjust the holder to find the best focus on non-adjustable lens flatbed scanners. It takes a bit of testing, scanning, then re-adjusting the height, etc. etc.

2. Then using the ANR glass to flatten the negs. (See the hint on the page)

If you haven’t used these holders they are like using a great quality lens as opposed to a “normal” quality lens.

Epson film holders are like toys compared to Fishers’ holders and I highly recommend them.

Jules


(PS) Doug is a very nice fellow and a pleasure to do business with. I believe he uses a Mamiya 645